Ashcroft, Comey and Mueller all were conservative-Republicans who had supported virtually every one of Bush's numerous violations of civil liberties, but in this case they were willing to take the ultimate step of putting their necks on the block by resigning and going public. So you can bet that program was something major and truly outrageous. It could well have been the NSA program, but, if not, there are at least two other possibilities:
1. The "Total Information Awareness" program, involving massive data-mining of millions of Americans' phone calls and e-mails, had been defunded by Congress when the legislators found out about it. Could the TIA, or something very much like it, ( http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/17/84134/7730 ) have been made operational, perhaps under another name, and that this was what Bush&Co. wanted to legalize in some fashion?
2. Could there be a domestic surveillance operation that enabled Bush&Co. to spy on political opponents to Bush policy -- Democratic leaders, anti-war activists, etc. -- that had no cover of law and needed a legal fig-leaf?
At the very least, Comey, Ashcroft and Mueller should be invited soon to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and explain what the hell the Bush Administration was doing that was so legally suspect that the three top men in the Department of Justice were willing to go public with their resignations in opposition to the policy.
So far as I know, Ashcroft has not been questioned under oath about his tenure as A.G., and it's long past time that he be asked pointed questions about that period, and especially about these episodes. And certainly it's time for Gonzales to be grilled again under oath about this, and other matters involving the legality and advisability of his behavior as White House Counsel and Attorney General. Lift up those rocks and the American public will have the opportunity to see a whole lot of bad.
Salon's Glenn Greenwald ( http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/05/17/nsa_follow_up/index.html ) sums up the situation accurately: "What James Comey described on Tuesday is the behavior of a government completely unmoored from any constraints of law, operating only by the rules of thuggery, intimidation, and pure lawlessness. Even for the most establishment-defending organs, there are now indisputably clear facts suggesting that the scope and breadth and brazenness of the lawbreaking here is far beyond even what was known previously, and it occurred at the highest levels of the Bush administration. We are so plainly beyond the point of no return with this criminality. It is now inescapably evident even for those who struggled for so long to avoid acknowledging it."
Even the Washington Post, normally friendly in its editorials to CheneyBush spin, came down hard on the Administration, speaking of a "lawlessness so shocking that it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source." But, sad to say, this incident, and the CheneyBush Administration's conduct in Iraq and in its domestic spying, does in fact represent the mob currently residing in the White House. Impeachment ASAP is a necessity to save our country. #
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught government & international relations at various universities in California and Washington, was a writer-editor with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly twenty years, and currently is co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org). To comment: crisispapers@comcast.net .
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
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